If you own a brick-and-mortar firearms retail store, at some point you will have to deal with this question if you haven’t already. There are both pros and cons to having your employees carry in your store while they’re on the clock, so let’s look at the list of them.
Cons
There are a number of questions you should be asking before allowing your staff to carry while working — and a “No” to any of them should give you pause.
- Do my employees have an acceptable level of training to use a firearm in a life-threatening situation should the need arise? Do they even know how to discern which situations call for the potential use of deadly force and which ones require other less-lethal remedies?
- Is the potential for the use of deadly force realistic for your store design? In many jurisdictions, law enforcement trains to a “21-foot rule” to determine when deadly force can be an option, this being the distance needed for an officer to effectively draw their weapon and fire when confronted with threat requiring the use of deadly force to stop it. Inside your store, though, the reaction space may be more like three feet across the gun counter. Knowing that, does allowing your staff to carry become more of a liability — are they more prone to a gun grab, for instance, or will they simply not have the time and distance needed to draw and fire in a close-quarters attack — than an asset?
- Do my business and health insurance policies cover any and all aftermath resulting from a use of force by an employee?
